World War II: Some General Information

The Good WarAmerica helped defeat fascism

A Japanese victory in the Pacificwould have been bad

Rosie the Riveter

Ken Burns, John Wayne

Ending the Holocaust

But World War II was more than that

50 million people killedMore civilians than soldiersThe most brutal war in historyThe wholesale bombing of citiesPolicies of exterminationInhumane treatment of POWsRacism run amuckRape, and plunder uncontrolledmurder was commonplace

World War II--The Good War, A Race War or Lots of Different Wars?

United StatesThe Reluctant BelligerentIsolationismGermany not America’s enemyPearl Harbor changed everythingThe War against Japan was a war of vengeanceA War Without Mercy--historian John DowerThe war challenged AmericaIt radically changed America

World War II was a series of separate wars

Germany vs. Europe & North AfricaGermany vs. The Soviet UnionSoviet Union vs. FinlandThe US vs. GermanyThe US vs. JapanJapan vs. ChinaJapan vs. Britain in SE AsiaAustralia vs JapanThe war against the Jews and otherundesirables

World War II began with a pledgenot bomb civilians

In the last year area fire bombing of Dresden and Tokyo

And the war ended with the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Total war meant total destruction

Total Losses in Thousands

Milita

ry Civili

an Tot

al % of population

Ukraine 2,500 5,500 8,000

19.1

Germany 4,500 2,000 6,500

9.1

Russia * 1,781 4,000 5,781

(?) 2.9

Poland 123 4,877 5,000

19.6

Japan 2,000 350 2,350

3.4

Yugoslavia 300 1,400 1,700

10.6

France 250 350 600 1.5 Italy 400 100 500 1.1 Romania 300 200 500 3.7 Greece 100 350 450 6.2 Hungary 136 294 430 4.6 Great Britain 290 60 350 0.7 Czech 46 294 340 3.0 Austria 270 104 374 5.6 USA 300 - 300 0.2 Holland 12 198 210 2.4 Finland 84 16 100 2.7 Belgium 13 75 88 1.1 Canada 42 - 42 0.4

The real war will never get in the history books

“Never give the enemy a chance; the days when we could practice the rules of sportsmanship are over. . . .Every soldier must be a potential gangster. . . .Remember you are out to kill.”

(British Handbook of Irregular War)

“I distrust people who speak of the atomic bombing . . . as anatrocity. . . .At that time (1945) virtually everyone was delightedthat we dropped the bombs . . .because the “Japs” deserved itfor the terrible things they had done to our boys at Pearl Harbor,Baton, Guadalcanal, and all the way across the Pacific.”

Paul Fussell, Wartime, p. 285.

For total war you must dehumanize the enemy

Americans detested the Japanese: They were jackals, monkey-men, japs, nips, or japes

Admiral William Halsey “We are drowning and burning them all over the Pacific, and it is just as much pleasure to burn them as to drown them.”An American soldier in the Pacific told John Hersey:“I wish we were fighting the Germans. They are human beings. But the Japs are like animals . . .

American believed that the Japanese could:

see in the dark kill for the pleasure of killing were totally at home in trees--hence monkeys always wore glasses Americans asked to describe the Japanese

Treacherous 73%Warlike 46%Sly 62%

GermansTreacherous 43%

RussiansTreacherous 10%

A 1944 public opinion poll

13% of Americans wanted theJapanese exterminated as anation

A 1945 public opinion poll

22% expressed regret that moreatomic bombs were not droppedon the Japanese

A Watershed event in American HistoryJournalist Marquis Childs recalled: “Nothing will ever be the same again.”

He was right--nothing was ever the same again

The people were more prosperous after the warThe government was more powerfulThe United States was a world leaderThe modern military with world-wide reach emergedThe war spelled the end of segregation and sexDiscriminationTechnology and corporations were kingThe GI Bill sent millions to college for the first time

What Should Students Know About WWII?

Large numbers can not name the AlliesConfused about when the war was foughtMost can’t name the PresidentFewer still can name key GeneralsAlmost no one can remember key battlesPearl Harbor a mysteryMany believe US & Germany fought againstthe Soviet Union

Most do know about the HolocaustThey do identify Hitler correctly

What do students know?When was WWII fought?

one of 36 1939-1945

What caused US to join WWII?16 of 36 said Pearl Harbor

Who was President of the US during WWII1 said FDR--others ranged from GeorgeWashington to George Bush

When you think of WWII what do you think of?violence 22; Iraq 2; generals riding horses

• Let’s assume that most students today--some 6 decades after the war ended--have problems understanding the scope of WWII

• It is mixed up with World War I, Korea, Vietnam and even Iraq

• So how do you get students to grasp the essentials of the war?

What do Americans know about WWII?

Where did US troops land for the D-Day Invasion in June, 1944?

What country did US fight against in D-Day invasion?

So they should know

FDR was President1939-1945US, Great Britain, China AlliesGermany, Japan and Italy EnemyBattles

In EuropeMoscow, Stalingrad & LeningradD-Day InvasionBattle of the BulgeBerlin

In Asia

Pearl Harbor--Dec. 7, 1941

Doolittle raid on Tokyo

Iwo Jima

Atomic bombs--Hiroshimaand Nagasaki

What were the causes of the war?

German conquestWestern ImperialismRacismJapanese expansionismItalian dreams of empireWeakness of the Europeandemocracies--Britain and FranceIsolation of the US from the world stage

The size and scope of World War II

It was fought on a world stageFrom Moscow to Paris From Sicily to BerlinGreece, Crete, YugoslaviaIn North Africa, Egypt, Libya, AlgeriaThe Pacific IslandsIndo-China, China, Burma, VietnamThe Philippine Islands